No label defined (Q3976629)

[For the entire collection see Zbl 0734.00014.] Let \(F_ m=\{K_ 1,K_ 2,\ldots,K_ m\}\) be a finite family of complete graphs. In this paper the same weight \(w_ k\) is assigned to all cliques with \(k\) nodes and with each \(m\)-clique cover \(C\) of \(G\) (a spanning subgraph of \(G\) in which every component belongs to \(F_ m\)) is associated the weight \(w(C)=\prod_ \alpha w_ \alpha\), where the product is taken over all components of \(C\). The \(m\)-clique polynomial of \(G\) is \(\sum w(C)=\sum\prod_ \alpha w_ \alpha\), where the summation is over all \(m\)-clique covers of \(G\). This polynomial belongs to the family of \(F\)-polynomials defined by \textit{E. J. Farrell} [J. Comb. Theory, Ser. B 26, 111-122 (1979; Zbl 0328.05006)]; the 2-clique polynomials are just the matching polynomials. Connections between simple \(m\)-clique polynomials and chromatic polynomials are established and explicit chromatic polynomials for various classes of graphs are deduced on this way. The exact simple \(m\)- clique polynomials for several classes of graphs are derived and some previous results of E. J. Farrell, B. Loerinc, and E. J. Farrell and E. G. Whitehead jun. are rediscovered.